stibbs graced us by uttering:
> > That is to say, what is it that is changing between the
> > currently-available Perl 5.x and Perl 6 that will suddenly
> > nullify the things that have drawn large numbers of
> > "converts" from the Perl and Python camps?
> 
> Every person that i know of who "converted" to ruby has since
> long converted back to using python as their main language due
> to the documentation issue, and i have quite a few online
> friends i have kept in contact with for quite some years that
> did this.

_THAT_ won't happen.

I'm sorry, but if Ruby ever went downhill (God forbid!), I'm
goin' back to Perl.  If there was ever a language that made it
difficult to do some of the simplest things imaginable, well,
it's Java.  But after that, it's Python.  ;)

> And i find most people that i know do like perl but
> they use python for the more clean/realistic OO.

I've started to use Ruby for general system scripting in addition
to larger projects.

> I think that rather than read through my original post and look
> at what you can pick apart about it, it might be a good idea to
> just try and see where i might be coming from. Judging from
> your reply to my original post, it seems you assume i'm just
> some newbie who has been looking at ruby for a few days and
> didnt put much effort in finding what online documentation is
> actually available for ruby (even though i stated the opposite
> in my original post).

As far as taking you for a newbie, you asked the same exact
question most newbies who _don't_ know how to use Google or ri
would ask.  It was most likely a mistake, and it certainly wasn't
personal.

I think that rather than simply criticizing the community's
efforts so harshly, it might be a good idea to offer to aid in
the documentation, especially since Ruby and her documention is
an open source endeavour relying on volunteers rather than
complaints.  Feedback is always important, but people can only do
so much for free.

Would you be willing to help a more detailed documentation
project?  Obviously we can't develop a doc project equivalent to
Perl's perldoc overnight, but it can happen with enough hard
work.  Do you have enough free time from your job to help in this
regard?

Tim Hammerquist
-- 
relaxen und watchen das AOLerchatten.